The federal agency that oversees the country’s largest bank has hired its first climate cop.
The Monetary Authority announced on Monday that Yue Cheng would become its chief climate risk officer. Dr. Cheng will focus on developing new systems to assess climate-driven risks to banks and understand how to monitor and manage them. the agency said in a statement.
Climate change, including global warming and increasingly unpredictable weather events, will force banks to determine how much to lend to real estate and business transactions and how to price those loans. It’s getting harder. Proponents of climate change financial surveillance say catastrophic weather events that have caused banks to lose more than expected could threaten the stability of the financial system.
The move to integrate climate change concerns into financial regulation has been largely driven by Democratic lawmakers who have warned for years about the danger climate change poses to markets. At the beginning of his term, President Biden assembled a large team of climate experts within the White House.
Last year, the OCC appointed one of its bank supervisors as a climate risk officer, encouraging banks to consider climate risk in their day-to-day operations. Dr. Chen’s role is an extension of that. She oversees the Regulator’s Office of Climate Risk and reports directly to the OCC leadership. The agency is run by Acting Auditor Michael Hsu.
Dr. Chen, better known as Nina, holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked at Goldman Sachs for the Wall Street giant’s wealth management business and for the Royal Bank of Canada before becoming Environmental Non-Profit Organization Nature She became Director of Conservancy Investments in New York and helped expand I was in the business of marshalling private funds to do so. group work.
The OCC post is also not Dr. Cheng’s first role as a regulator. She was most recently in charge of the newly created Climate Division at the New York State Financial Regulatory Authority.
“We are fortunate to have someone with a background and experience in both finance and climate-related financial risks,” Su said. statement.